5th Week of Easter, Saturday, May 13
Acts 16:1-10 / John 15:18-21
Jesus warns his disciples; ' 'They will Persecute you as they did me. "
An American warship was transporting wounded Japanese prisoners during World War Il. The medical officer took such excellent care of the prisoners that some American officers protested. "Treat those animals the same way that they treat our wounded," they said. The medical officer responded: "Let them play by their rules. I play by a different set of rules, and if that bothers anyone, I'm sorry. I'm going to do my best to replace whatever hatred they have in their hearts with love. That's the only way we're ever going to have peace in this world."
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What set of rules do we usually play by— the world's rules or the rules of Jesus? "He drew a circle that shut me out— Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win. We drew a circle that took him in. Edwin Markham, "Outwitted"
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Feast day: May 13
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to
three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in
1917. She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8,
and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.
The story of Fatima begins in 1916, when, against the backdrop
of the First World War which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and
powerful forms of warfare yet seen, and a year before the Communist revolution
would plunge Russia and later Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression
under militant atheistic governments, a resplendent figure appeared to the
three children who were in the field tending the family sheep. “I am the Angel
of Peace,” said the figure, who appeared to them two more times that year
exhorting them to accept the sufferings that the Lord allowed them to undergo
as an act of reparation for the sins which offend Him, and to pray constantly
for the conversion of sinners.
Then, on the 13th day of the month of Our Lady, May 1917, an
apparition of ‘a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun’ presented
itself to the three children saying “Please don’t be afraid of me, I’m not
going to harm you.” Lucia asked her where she came from and she
responded, “I come from Heaven.” The woman wore a white mantle
edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. The woman asked them to pray and
devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to “say the Rosary every day, to
bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”
She also revealed that the children would suffer, especially
from the unbelief of their friends and families, and that the two younger
children, Francisco and Jacinta would be taken to Heaven very soon but Lucia
would live longer in order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate
Heart.
In the last apparition the woman revealed her name in
response to Lucia’s question: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
That same day, 70,000 people had turned out to witness the
apparition, following a promise by the woman that she would show the people
that the apparitions were true. They saw the sun make three circles and move
around the sky in an incredible zigzag movement in a manner which left no doubt
in their minds about the veracity of the apparitions. By 1930 the Bishop
had approved of the apparitions and they have been approved by the Church as
authentic.
The messages Our Lady imparted during the apparitions to the
children concerned the violent trials that would afflict the world by means of
war, starvation, and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father in the
twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She exhorted
the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come
upon the world, and that the trials may be averted.
Our Lady of Fatima revealed three prophetic “secrets,” the
first two of which were revealed earlier and refer to the vision of hell and
the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War, and finally
the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by
abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism.
The third “secret” was not revealed until the year 2000, and referred to the
persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: “The good will be
martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be
annihilated'”. The suffering of the popes of the 20th century has been
interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981,
which took place on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions. The Holy
Father attributed his escape from certain death to the intervention of Our
Lady: “... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his
throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.”
What is the central meaning of the message of Fatima?
Nothing different from what the Church has always taught: it is, as Cardinal
Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict the XVI, has put it, “the exhortation to
prayer as the path of “salvation for souls” and, likewise, the summons to
penance and conversion.”
Perhaps the most well known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident decalaration that “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. Cardinal Ratzinger has interpreted this utterance as follows: “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.
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On his second missionary journey, Paul and his new companion, Silas, went to Lystra. There they met Timothy, now in his early twenties. He was a fine young man with an excellent reputation. He was well versed in the Scriptures, Hebrew and Greek. Paul ordained him and made him a companion on the journey. Not to offend the Jews, Paul had him circumcised since in Jewish law he had to follow the religion of the mother. This was Paul's mission policy: to go always first to the Jews. The Jews had spread widely in the Roman empire and in almost every place there was a synagogue. Being a Pharisee and a highly educated teacher of the law, Paul was able to impress a Jewish audience. Christ was first sent to the scattered flock of Israelites, not only as a starting-point, but especially since Judaism was permitted in Rome, till Claudius forbade it in 49 AD. Otherwise they would have fallen under the law of "illicit religion". Greek had become, after Alexander, the language of culture and commerce in the then known world. Paul always sought the will of God, every sign of which was dear to him. Five times Luke mentions that God showed him his will in a dream (16.6; 18.9-10; 22.17-21; 23, 11; 27.23-24). Here he saw a Macedonian, who said him: come across and help us. Was it perhaps that even he thought Of Alexander the Great and was inspired by him to go out and extend the kingdom of God to the ends of the world?
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The world that has rejected Christ hates Christ and his disciples; it persecutes them because the lifestyle of a good Christian is a silent condemnation of the world. Think, for example, of the films by Luis Bunuel, the Spanish director, who is obsessed by everything Christian and holds it up to bitter sarcasm.
Perhaps, more deadening than persecution is the attitude of a world that has not discovered Christ or has a distorted view of him and of Christianity. To these people, we are ridiculous, old-fashioned, irrelevant, out of touch with reality, and worthy of a pitying smile.
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In life, we are often confronted with the two ways of deciding and acting. There is the way of the world, which is always more popular and also easier to follow. But a deeper reflection would tell us that the way of the world is inevitably a selfish and self-centred approach which does not bring about much good.
The other way is the way of Jesus. It is obviously a more difficult way, but one that leads us to discover the meaning of life and wonders of love. As it is, the world talks about retribution, revenge, to think about ourselves and to be No. 1 even at all costs. The way of Jesus shows us sacrifice, humility, love and care for others. To follow the way of Jesus can result in scorn and contempt. Others will see us as weak and soft and will even call us losers.
Yet in the end, the way of Jesus has proven to be a more gentle and more powerful way that brings about the beauty and the meaning of love. Let us remember that we serve only one Master. Hence for us it is only His way.
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Yet this was the lot of Christ. We share in his love, and also in the treatment he is given by the world. The disciple is no better than the master. In the disciple, the world still rejects Christ, the Master. At least, we are in good company…
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Prayer
Lord, our God, it is good to live in the friendship of your Son, Jesus Christ. Make us realize that also in this love, we are committed to him and share with him for better and for worse, in misunderstanding and contradiction as well as in joy and intimacy. Help us to rejoice, even when treated with indifference or ridicule on account of him, for it means that he is still with us, who is our Lord forever. Amen
